Friday, January 31, 2014

Sappho Speaks

Sappho, ancient Greek poetess best known for things other than her poetry, wrote a lot of poems. But only one survives intact, along with substantial parts of four more. Make that five; this papyrus belonged to a collector who had no idea what was in it, so he took it to papyrologist Dr. Dirk Obbink of Oxford, who recognized it. No translation has been published yet, but it seems to mention two men who were said by much later writers to be her brothers.

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